


Aftermath

by EquusofEquusNanashi



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher, Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: No Not Read if you do not want SPOILERS, One Shot, Spoilers, This is set eight years after Soul Stealer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 16:53:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6123166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EquusofEquusNanashi/pseuds/EquusofEquusNanashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Norris Jones thinks about her life after she helps her bosses take down a demon summoning cult.  Set eight-ish years after the end of Soul Stealer.  Has spoilers in it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath

Shadows danced throughout the room.  As if the wind was blowing through the trees outside the window and dappling the moonlight.  It would have been beautiful if not for the fact that there was no wind to blow the tree branches. 

The shadows moved on their own.  Undulating and curling through the dark room as if they had a mind of their own.  The shadows held watch over the beds three inhabitants, guarding them the way one would a king.  Or a pharaoh.

The men who served the beds inhabitants had learned long ago that the shadows were dangerous.  Not in the assassin-of-the-night kind of way.  But full on monsters-from-another-realm that waited for the order to drag-you-into-hell and tear-apart-your-soul, kind of way.

It was considered a death sentence to be the one to inform the beds inhabitants of bad news, or worse, to be forced to wake them up in the middle of the night with news of any kind.  It didn’t matter what was happening. 

No one was to wake them up.

Which was why Norris Jones stood hesitantly in the bedroom doorway.  Jones was young to be a body guard, too young really.  At the age of nineteen she had seen the underbelly of the world, and worked in it for a good seven years. 

Five years ago she had been saved by the beds inhabitants, shown a new side of the world.  A side filled with monsters, magik, and the shadows.   At the time Jones had been running jobs for a gang that had been trying to gain ground in Minneapolis and St. Paul.  The grab for territory failed.  All because the beds inhabitants hadn’t been pleased when children started using drugs.  Drugs the gang Jones had worked for had been selling.

 You see, even the criminal world has rules.  One does not kill pregnant women or children, and one does not rape people.  Period.  And in some places of the United States, one does not sell drugs to children.

Minnesota was one such place.

Why?  Because Gentleman Johnny Marcone was the Crime Lord of Chicago, and his children had followed in his footsteps.

Yes, I said children.  Three to be precise.

They were known in the criminal world as _The Pharaoh’s Shadows_ , and they where the law.   No organization, no person for that matter, had ever escaped their grasp.   

Some people said they had been trained in a secret military operation as children but had escaped and found refuge with Marcone.  Others went on to say that Marcone had fathered the three with the daughters of different crime lords worldwide in order to gain more power in the criminal world.  Then there where the more ludicrous rumors.

Norris Jones favorite was the one that stated that Marcone’s children had magik, and could summon beasts to devour their enemies at will.  That one just happened to be true, and that was why she liked it.

No.  Jones had been saved that day five years ago because of that magik. 

The magik that ran through Marcone’s thee children, the same magik that ran through her veins as well.  Shadow magik, they had told her five years ago after Jones had watched then summon gods to do their bidding.  The magik of the Pharaohs.  A magik that meant she was a descendent of the Shadow Realm.

They had offered her a choice.  Become a member of their criminal enterprise, and be given the chance to learn to control her gift.  Or live as the only survivor of the gang and wait to be hunted down at a later time.  She had sworn fealty to them right there, on the dirty, bloody ground of a burning building.

And she had never looked back.

Her bosses had never given her a reason to think it had been the wrong choice.  Not when she had followed them into the nevernever for the first time.  Not when she had been put on trial by the White Council for being a warlock.  Not even when they had been thrown into Ancient Egypt and forced to fight a legion of demons to get back home.

To put it simply, Jones lived for the chaos and adventure that was her bosses’ lives on a daily basis.  They treated her like family, as if this home on Summit Avenue wasn’t just their home, but hers as well, and that was a feeling Jones never wanted to change.

So she would continue to serve them.

They weren’t just _The Pharaoh’s Shadows_ , or Gentleman Johnny Marcone’s kids.  No.  They were Horus, Set, and Meilia.  Even though they where only twenty-four they had done so much, ending with the take down of demon summoning cult earlier that night.

Vibrating from her pocket drew Jones from her thoughts.  With deft fingers Jones drew the smart-phone from her pocket.  A message lit up the screen.  Reading it a small smile grew on Jones tired face.

_We finally got done with the police, Dresden is going to kill me if he finds out I sent that information over to Set.  Something about not trusting the children of criminals???  He does know he’s related to one of them by blood, right?  And the other two by marriage…well…does soul bonding count as marriage?  Hmm, I’ll have to ask him that later. I’m heading home now.  Tell them I said thanks for taking out the cult for us.  I would come over and do it personally, but Dresden has put me on research duty for the foreseeable future. – Molly Carpenter_

Jones quickly typed back her reply, before shoving the phone back in her pocket. 

That was the question wasn’t it?  Where her bosses married because of a soul bond?  Or where they considered incestuous for being together in a sexual relationship even though they held no blood relation?  It was a question that held various answers. 

Now days Horus and Meilia introduced themselves to strangers as husband or wife.  Set held the position of brother-in-law most of the time, not that the three of them really minded the titles.  They where equals in their relationship, had been for far longer than Jones had known them.  Pretending to be married and having an extramarital affair with the brother-in-law?  That was just for their own amusement.

The shadows stilled, alerting Jones that something was happening.

“Jones,” Horus’s baritone voice spoke from the bed.  “It is late and you are tired, go to bed.  Nothing will attack us tonight, and if anything is stupid enough to, Ammit will eat them.”

Jones couldn’t see Horus’s crimson eyes, but she could feel them staring at her intensely.  “I will,” she said.  “I just….”

“Hmm?”  Was Horus’s lazy reply, urging her to continue.

Jones swallowed lightly.   “I just wanted to check that everything was alright before I headed to bed.  One of the demons nearly got Set and…I guess it shook me up.”

“It happens to everyone,” Horus stated.  “Now go to bed.  We are meeting the White Courts Warden for this area tomorrow.  You will need to be at your best.”  And that was the end of the conversation.  Horus went back to sleep, splayed among two bodies.

Jones softly closed the door to the master bedroom and started the trek down to her own quarters.  Along the way her phone vibrated again.  Glancing at it the smile once again returned to Jones’s face.

_I’d love too!  Meilia promised to teach me some healing spells as well.  And well, she does have the best magikal library I have seen.  Don’t tell Dresden or the WC I said that either!  I’ll see you in a few days.  Sleep well, love you. – M.C._

A glance around the room Jones had ended up in revealed that she had made it back to her quarters.  Toeing off her boots Jones flopped down on her bed and texted Molly back.

_Call me when you get home safe. I love you too. – N.J._

Jones was already asleep when Molly called thirty minutes later. 

Two states away Molly smiled lightly as the call went to answering machine.  She knew Jones had fallen asleep waiting for the phone call.  Flopping down on her own bed Molly groaned and rolled onto her side. 

She wanted to sleep for a fortnight; however, she had promised her mother that she would help with cooking Sunday dinner the next day.  With thoughts of chicken pot pie and a nineteen year old body guard running through her mind Molly drifted off to sleep.  Dreaming about the time she would finally get the courage to introduce her girlfriend to her mother.

**Author's Note:**

> Just finished watching Deadpool before coming home and writing this. I needed to think about what Horus, Set, and Meilia would be doing after Soul Stealer. I mean, that isn't the last we will be hearing from them. Even if Soul Stealer isn't finished yet.


End file.
